Foundation head to resign $230,000 position at NMSU

LAS CRUCES — The president of the NMSU Foundation will become the fourth of the university's top-earning employees to step down in four months.

Dennis Prescott, also vice president for University Advancement, will resign April 15 to join Bentz Whaley Flessner, a consulting firm specializing in higher education fundraising.

"It's just a great professional opportunity for me because of the standing Bentz Whaley Flessner has in what I do for a living," Prescott said.

Former NMSU president Barbara Couture began the chain of high-profile resignation announcements in October, followed by provost Wendy Wilkins in November and football head coach DeWayne Walker in January.

Prescott makes $230,000 a year, sixth highest on the university's payroll and in the city.

He took the foundation's helm in January 2011.

The foundation raises and manages private gift funds to support NMSU.

Prescott said his tenure was spent expanding development staff to increase the size of the university's next campaign, as well as updating accounting and donor record systems.

"Now we're much better positioned going forward," he said.

Response to Prescott's leadership is mixed.

Donor Ammu Devasthali said Prescott was "lacking in relationships with donors."

"I personally did not find his tenure as president of the foundation to be a very effective one," she said.

Board of Regents Chair Mike Cheney said he never saw a lack of relationships.

"I'm disappointed to see Dennis go," he said.

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"He really helped the NMSU Foundation move forward from a standpoint of infrastructure and systems enhancement."

Interim President Manuel Pacheco announced Prescott's resignation in an email to faculty Tuesday afternoon.

Prescott's tenure also saw the university's endowment recover, which, like many schools' endowments, suffered during the recession.

The endowment now sits at $138 million.

Prescott came to know Bentz Whaley Flessner as a client while leading development, fundraising and alumni relations initiatives at Mississippi State University and Baylor University, as well as at NMSU.

He will work in the company's Minneapolis office.

His wife, Ruth Prescott, executive associate to the president, will stay at NMSU until the presidential search is complete.

The university has started discussions on transitioning leadership of the Foundation and the Advancement Division, Pacheco said.

NMSU's presidential search is also ongoing.

Devasthali said she has concerns about NMSU's high turnover but that the people who left "probably needed to leave."

"My concern is not with the people that are leaving," she said, "it's how we turn the ship around."

Lindsey Anderson can be reached at 575-541-5462. Follow her on Twitter @l_m_anderson